Single-, Few- and Many-Body Physics in Optical Superlattices

该项目将使用一个中性原子系综，冷却到比已知宇宙中任何地方都低的温度，保持在由交叉激光束形成的晶体中，与外部世界完美隔离，并用高灵敏度成像方法检测，以建模和理解固态材料的特性。这项工作的广泛目标是促进目前具有高度科学和经济利益的两个具体领域的科学进步。首先，对这些超冷原子气体的实验将揭开材料科学中的核心谜团，特别是那些与具有强相关电子和受挫磁相互作用的材料有关的谜团，这两者都会导致物质的新相。这些新相可能会促进信息存储、信息处理或高温超导性的发展。其次，该项目提高了制备和控制复杂量子系统的能力。这些能力有望推动新量子技术的发展。事实上，进行这项工作的研究生和博士后研究人员将获得宝贵的技能，并能够为新兴的量子技术领域以及学术和其他研究职位做出重大贡献。更具体地说，该项目的重点是在两个新的非原始的二维晶体结构的巡回粒子的量子特性：三聚Kagome晶格和六聚蜂窝晶格。在目前的实验装置中，巡游粒子是铷原子，晶体结构是使用双色光学晶格形成的。在这两种晶格结构中，强键合的多位点斑彼此弱耦合。在格元之间的零耦合极限下，晶格由许多完全孤立的、少格点、少粒子的量子系统组成。测量将探测这些斑块的单体和少体量子态，提高我们在量子态工程方面的能力，并实现玻色子劳克林态的最小表示。在引入斑片之间的耦合的机制中，多体物理学以受控的方式出现。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will use an ensemble of neutral atoms cooled to temperatures lower than anywhere else in the known Universe, held in a crystal formed by intersecting laser beams, superbly isolated from the outside world, and detected with highly sensitive imaging methods, to model and understand the properties of solid-state materials. The broad goal of this work is to promote the progress of science in two specific areas that are presently of high scientific and economic interest. First, experiments on these ultracold atomic gases will unravel central mysteries in materials science, specifically those pertaining to materials with strongly correlated electrons and frustrated magnetic interactions, both of which lead to novel phases of matter. These novel phases may enable advances in information storage, information processing, or high-temperature superconductivity. Second, this project advances capabilities in preparing and controlling complex quantum systems. These capabilities are expected to fuel the development of new quantum technologies. In fact, the graduate students and postdoctoral researchers conducting this work will gain valuable skills and be positioned to make significant contributions to the nascent quantum technologies sector, as well as in academic and other research positions. More specifically, this project focuses on the quantum properties of itinerant particles in two new non-primitive two-dimensional crystal structures: a trimerized Kagome lattice and a hexamerized honeycomb lattice. In the current experimental setup, the itinerant particles are rubidium atoms and the crystal structure is formed using a bichromatic optical lattice. In both lattice structures, strongly bonded multi-site plaquettes are coupled weakly to one another. In the limit of zero coupling between plaquettes, the lattices are composed of many fully isolated, few-site, few-particle quantum systems. Measurements will probe the single-body and few-body quantum states of these plaquettes, advancing our capabilities in quantum state engineering and realizing minimal representations of bosonic Laughlin states. In the regime where coupling between plaquettes is introduced, many-body physics emerges in a controlled manner. Measurements will be performed to reveal interesting orbital-magnetism states and characterize rapidly rotating lattice-trapped quantum gases.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.